


the concept of a goalkeeper

by agletbaby



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Hanging Out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 17:23:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7183154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agletbaby/pseuds/agletbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Chris Chow!” Johnson says cheerily, once he’s deduced that the kid is the goalie, because it’s pretty easy to stay up to date with who’s-who when your fictional universe is only populated by twenty-odd named characters, including a toy rabbit. “Chow-Chow. Chowds. 'Sup?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	the concept of a goalkeeper

Johnson swings by Samwell on Class Day. It’s debatable as to whether that makes sense - he was probably thousands of miles away the day before, too far for a weekend trip, although who can say. He’s a single trope character; his background is not that developed. Anyway, Johnson’s okay with visiting. It’s a neat callback and it’s always nice to see everyone, check up on character development. Plus, the flow. He goes with it.

He heads to the Haus and immediately checks out the kitchen, because Bitty’s guaranteed to breeze through there at some point, and if Bitty doesn’t see him, then Johnson basically hasn’t been there.

Also, there’s pie, and Johnson is all about that. The baking may be fictional but that just means it’s going to be awesome. Those are, like, the rules.

Bitty is there, of course, and he’s good, of course. Johnson’s down with it. It’s too early in the arc for much drama. He seems kind of confused over Johnson’s presence, but he’s polite anyway, because he’s nice like that. Even if it wasn’t necessary for Johnson to be in the protagonist’s favour in order to ensure a vaguely alluded to happy ending, he’d be pals with Bitts.

Johnson asks after his love life, because, y’know, that’s what they’re ultimately all here for, right? To see him to his fairytale ending. It’s still a way off, it seems, judging by the single, subtle look of longing that Bitty directs just out of frame. The angst is negated though, after Johnson reminds him that he’s the romantic hero. He seems weirded out rather than reassured but, y’know, Johnson is a goalie and literally nothing more, so comforting is not his strong point. Whatever. Long term, Bitty'll be living the rom-com dream. Short term, Bitty doesn't take the pie out of reach. Those are the important issues.

Soon though, Bitts skips away again, to go and sing along to pop music, or stare longingly across the hall from his strategically positioned room, or whatever it is he does to chillax between plot developments.

There’s still enough time before Class Day begins for another chance encounter so Johnson stays sat, feet up on another chair, eating a slice of the blueberry pie which Bitty just happened to have in the oven, and which just happens to be his favourite flavour, at least for the purpose of this coincidence.

Sure enough, a kid soon comes in. Johnson notes with sympathy that he didn’t manage to get his braces off before college, which is harsh, considering that all of this is fake, and the dude’s teeth could just as easily been designed perfect. Like Johnson’s probably are.

He’s wearing a lot of Sharks stuff, the kid. Socks and tshirt, as well a hat that looks like a great white is chomping on his head, and Johnson’s honestly clueless as to whether it’s a special Class Day look, or if he just wears it all the time. Either way, the whole thing reeks of gimmick which means he’s got to be Johnson’s successor, both in quirk-having and position. Goalies are weird, that’s just one of the governing principles of the fictional universe of which they live. It’s debatable as to whether or not being really into an aquatic predator themed ice hockey club is more novel than the awareness that what you take to be reality is, in fact, literally the exact opposite, but Johnson would like to think he’s got the edge. That said, that sure is a lot of fins.

“Chris Chow!” Johnson says cheerily, once he’s deduced that the kid is the goalie, because it’s pretty easy to stay up to date with who’s-who when your fictional universe is only populated by twenty-odd named characters, including a toy rabbit. “Chow-Chow. Chowds. ‘Sup?”

The kid looks pretty concerned at this, probably because he doesn’t have the same vague omniscience that Johnson rocks. “Chowder’s good,” he says. “As a name. And, um, sorry but, like- who are you?”

“Johnson.” Johnson tells him. And then, because he’s got a first name, which is more than he can say for some of the team, so he should really make the most of it. “John Johnson. Ex-Samwell goalie and the comically meta character of the piece.”

“Oh!” says Chowder, and his mouth goes round. “You sent me the letter! That was really weird, but then when I got here everyone said it was just you, so-- yeah! I’d never had a plum jelly bean before.”

“Dude, you picked the blue pill and ended up here? Interesting.”

“Oh, um, no? I had both. Sorry if that’s, like, a problem or whatever.”

“Duuuude.” Johnson shakes his head, impressed. “You stepped outside the system. Get you. I mean, there’s no real escape from our reality, but all the points for effort. Well, I say no escape. Who knows what’ll happen after the graduation of the class of seventeen. Probably we all collapse into the nothingness from which we came, or whatever.”

Chowder laughs nervously and glances towards the door.

“Nah, sorry that was heavy. But like. Be real. As real as you can, which I know isn’t very. How’s Samwell treating you?”

Suddenly, Chowder looks much happier, braces shining away as he grins wide. “It’s really neat here! ‘Swawesome!” he begins, and Johnson can basically see the cartoon exclamation marks floating around the kid’s cartoon head. He basically tunes out, at least until Chowder says something about it being like a dream come true or something, at which point he has himself a chuckle at the idea of any of this being legit.

“Oh, uh, sorry.” Chowder says, his speech slowing to a stop. “I guess, I was? Kind of talking a lot.”

“It’s cool, let it out. It’s not your fault you’re prone to ramble. It’s a memorable character trait, anyhow.”

“Thanks?”

Johnson gives a happy grunt in reply, and helps himself to another slice of pie. A year out of the panels, with no reason to speak has made him pretty chill with silence. Chowder, however, only leaves a moment before the lack of text becomes too much for him and he chats right on.

“So, what was the team like when you were on it? You guys were so good. I mean, I’ve seen the match scores and read through all the old tweets so I guess I know what happened, but, like, what happened? It must have been really cool, being on such a team like that. Not that our team now isn’t good! Well, I mean there’s quite a lot of overlap, like Jack and Shitty - do you know why he’s called that, by the way? Wait, don’t tell me, I almost don’t want to know.” He stops, and Johnson thinks for a moment he’s finished, but it turns out it was only a break to breath. “I think our current team lives up to the legacy. Or maybe exceeds it! Oh, um, that’s not to say I think I’m better than you or anything, definitely not. It’s just that, like, everyone I play with is so good, y’know? I mean, you do - you know all the upperclassmen. And Bitty! You know him! He said his room used to be yours. That’s so cool! But like, the other frogs are really good too! Dex and Nursey are my best friends on the team probably, and they’re both amazing, although they don’t really seem to, um, see that in each other. Which is the worst, because they’re both so cool! Like, Dex acts all grumpy but he’s fixed my computer all the times I’ve downloaded viruses and he only ever seems a little bit annoyed! And Nursey, right, he acts all like he doesn’t care but he’s actually super clumsy which is hilarious, and he’s really good at cuddling! He’s not as good at hugs though-”

“He sounds well rounded.” Johnson says, because he’s finished two slices of pie whilst Chowder was speaking, and he reckons that’s enough for one monologue.

Chowder looks bewildered at this. “Well, no, not really. He’s very fit. Like, y’know, toned. I mean obviously, because he plays hockey so much. So, um, yeah.”

“No worries,” Johnson says, because explaining himself is something he’s just way past doing. Why talk about little things like yourself when you have, like, the nature of reality itself to discuss? “He seems cool.”

“He is! Everyone is.” Chowder sinks down a little into his seat, looking all content.

“True that. Samwell's great. I mean, it’s obviously a perfectly constructed hockey college experience, with the added benefit of being a light hearted piece of media, hence guaranteeing good times.” Johnson pauses. Chowder is looking at him wide-eyed and like he’s on the verge of being convinced. He seems like a swell kid. Johnson is glad they met, whether it’s narratively relevant or not. “But still. Or because of. It's a pretty unreal place to be.”

“‘Swawesome!” Chowder agrees.

**Author's Note:**

> yeahhh so this came entirely out of me being like: hey johnson's sure cool! hey chowder's sure great! let's stick 'em together! hence the general lack of structure/plot/any of those cool things that people tell you to do when writing. also, no real checking for errors went on. sorry?
> 
> that said it is totally backed up by multiple (like, two) real cp events. the jelly bean thing is here here and the johnson turning up at class day thing is legit too but i won't link to it bc it's on bitty's twitter which is, atm, inaccessible (the bane of my life).  
> also the title's totally a reference to [this art](http://omgcheckplease.tumblr.com/post/70107350347). cool. okay. that's all the links for now. hope you enjoyed :D


End file.
